Heredad de Hidalgo Pale Cream Sherry, Jerez

Bodegas Hidalgo - La Gitana was founded in 1792 by José Panaléon Hidalgo, who originally came from the north of Spain. He bought a small winery in Sanlúcar from Don Roque Vejarano, and today Bodegas Hidalgo - La Gitana is still owned by the Hidalgo family which makes it one of last few bodegas totally under family ownership.

It is currently owned and run by the eighth generation Luis, Antonio, Juan and Fermin Hidalgo, and is the ninth oldest company in Spain and the third oldest sherry bodega. For top quality Manzanilla sherries both terroir in the vineyard and ‘terroir’ in the winery are key. Bodegas Hidalgo is in Barrio Bajo, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, just a few hundred metres from the sea, the Guadalquiver River marshes and the Guadalquiver River. This perfect location enjoys higher humidity than in Jerez, giving the best conditions for flor growth and results in the finest dry sherries. Hidalgo is very unusual in owning all their own vineyards, and has large parcels in the top quality Miraflores and Balbaína pagos (a pago is a vineyard cluster or district defined by similar characteristics or ‘fingerprints’). Here the marine sedimentary Albariza soils are very chalky comprising 50-80% limestone. Hidalgo has made great successes of single vineyard releases although their best known wine is the top quality Manzanilla 'La Gitana' (The Gypsy) which comes from the Miraflores pago. In recent years they have released Manzanilla La Gitana ‘En Rama’ which has developed quite a following. It comes from the same vineyard as La Gitana, but is made exclusively from free-run juice. Hidalgo specially selects 35 casks of wine for their En Rama which spends two years longer in solera than La Gitana. It is bottled unfiltered, and ‘En Rama’ can be translated as ‘from the vine’ or ‘straight from the cask’. They also produce a number of other sherries including the raisiny sweet Triana Pedro Ximénez (PX) and very old Wellington Palo Cortado Sherry, 20 years VOS.